


And His Hair Was Perfect

by ninhursag



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, BAMF Alex Manes, Homelessness, M/M, Murder, Teen Romance, Werewolves and aliens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:27:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23900809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninhursag/pseuds/ninhursag
Summary: Teenage werewolves and homeless teenage aliens, a love story set in Roswell, New Mexico.**The wolf didn't bother him, it was better than the packs of coyotes yipping. It's just the one wolf, he figured out early. Low and lonely sounding, far away. Then less far away. Gone a few weeks and then back again, louder and closer, howling. It got familiar, he missed it when it was quiet, almost.It turned colder as the weeks passed.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 34
Kudos: 129





	And His Hair Was Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently Alex Manes, werewolf, is something I'm into right now. Thanks Tumblr 😆
> 
> Yes the title is from werewolves of London. Awoooooooo

Michael heard the wolf in the desert howling for weeks before he saw it. He'd ditched his latest group home, straight up AWOL, but as long as the checks keep coming and he shows up at school on time, no truant officers are coming knocking. It was safe, even with wolves and coyotes and the detritus of sleeping rough. 

No one crept in on him at night like they had at-- or, well, if they did do that, he's got his full rights to fight back. 

School was the easy part, breakfast, lunch and a shower in the gym before classes start. He could also slip notepads and pencils into his bag, enough to get his work done. To meet his goal.

The wolf didn't bother him, it was better than the packs of coyotes yipping. It's just the one wolf, he figured out early. Low and lonely sounding, far away. Then less far away. Gone a few weeks and then back again, louder and closer, howling. It got familiar, he missed it when it was quiet, almost.

It turned colder as the weeks passed.

Night came on faster and he got his school work done by flashlight, huddled into his sleeping bag in the cab so he could run the heat on and off, and never mind the aches it left in his body.

The stars shone beautiful in the desert, clear and bright without the town lights to dim them. Looking on down, so close he could imagine they were looking for their missing child. 

"Here I am!" He yelled out at those stars some nights. Sometimes the wolf howled back. It was here too, on this dusty, mediocre rock. At least it wasn’t not like Michael, at least it was formed here, blood and bone. He belonged somewhere else.

In the daylight, at school, he tried not to notice the dark eyed youngest Manes boy watching him with more care than he'd used to. Michael doesn't care to notice much, he's got projects and extra credit and end of quarter exams are coming up. The physics text book the school uses sucks and that means hours in the library using their computers to do the homework right. 

He's got Max and Isobel, to nudge him and casually share their fries like he's not supposed to notice they're doing it. 

At night, he has the wolf. That's plenty.

He doesn't need Alex Manes, with the challenging eyerolls and the furious fists. Everyone knows that kid will throw down with anyone who looks at him too hard, he might wear eyeliner and befriend girls, but he's still a Manes. They're all violent fuckers in a corner.

Maybe.

It gets colder and the wolf gets closer, night over night. Michael read up on native wolves before the library closed and put him back outside into the open air. El lobo, grey and brown, smaller than the grey wolves up north, endangered, almost extinct. Reintroduced to the wild recently.

They were pack animals. There shouldn't be just one the way Michael was hearing at night, that was a sign of something off. 

But hell, he wasn't worried. Out here in the middle of nowhere, he could use all his own skills, especially on a wolf. If he had to.

He was more worried about human animals anyway. Rightfully so.

Michael met the wolf on a brutal night when he was sleeping fitfully, wearing every shirt he could get on his body. He was too low on gas to really pump the heater, but he was tempted.

It was a big desert out there, but everyone knew-- Michael knew from experience-- there were drifters out there, homeless and hungry. They'd follow lights, looking to steal or worse. He still wasn't expecting the loud bang and smash on his window, like from a crowbar. The way the glass cracked but didn't shatter.

He jumped up into sitting, cold and dazed, and half in a panic, flashing on angry drunks and broken glass in the middle of the night. He didn't hear the wolf, he heard the man, screaming through the window, pale face and dirty hair in the bright moonlight. Awake and confused, heart beating over time, hurting throat, keeping in the screams because if the neighbors called the cops he was in for it-- 

Wait. No neighbors.

He didn't hear the wolf, but he saw it, a flash of silver and brown, coming up from behind, flashing fangs and tearing teeth.

It ripped out the drifter's neck while Michael stared, mesmerized. It had dark, liquid eyes, strange and familiar, looking right into his. A low, unsteady snarl, as it mauled what had to be a corpse. Bloody snout, thick fur, bared teeth.

A sane guy would have put his keys in the ignition and gunned it for the highway. Michael just kept watching, mouth shut, eyes wide, hand pressed up against the cracked glass that was gonna let the cold in even worse.

The wolf stopped, spent a moment licking blood from its paws, then padded over to the car. It wasn't tall as it could be. Wiki had told him grey wolves were bigger, but it came up on its hind legs so it could meet his eyes, considering. Paws pressed to the window, on the other side of where Michael's hand pushed.

Its eyes were bright, intelligent, the vicious slit of them gone. Gentle. Michael felt like a dumbass thinking that, but it looked like it wanted to reassure.

Then it slipped down, bounded back to its prey and gave Michael a last over the shoulder nod before it grabbed the corpse with its teeth and dragged it off into the brush.

In the morning, Michael taped up the window with plastic in the school parking lot and saw Alex Manes out of the corner of his eye, watching him do it. Watching out of big, liquid dark eyes that looked nothing like a wolf's. It wasn't possible. Physics alone suggested it wasn't possible, what Michael was thinking.

He watched Alex back, steady eyed, as if he was going to watch him lick blood off his mouth.

"I don't need you looking out for me," Michael hissed onto his ear when they came too close in the hallways during passing time between periods. "Never, never do that again."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Guerin," Alex said, in a low tone. He didn't stop looking, Michael could feel eyes on him, at lunch, during PE, out in the parking lot when he walked back to his truck and Alex was out there doing skateboard tricks with the emo kids, flying on his board. Dark hair in the wind, piercings gleaming in the pale winter sun.

The wolf still howled most nights. Michael had figured early that it was gone around the new moon, when it was darkest. Louder and closer on the full moon.

He tried not to think too hard about any of it. It got colder, he scrounged up some blankets from a donation bin by the grocery store. Isobel slipped some extra toothpaste into his backpack while he wasn't looking and he didn't comment. Max kept pushing fries and chips at him at lunch and he didn't say anything, just ate them. 

He got involved in some modeling problems for physics and the teacher, who mostly coached football but was trying anyway, hooked him up with a guy at UNM. It kept his school days full, busy, out from under.

Alex Manes watched him during the day, all the time, every time Michael turned around in a hallway. He wondered if he smelled like prey.

The wolf showed up at night, when it was coldest.

In the end, he waited up for it on a bright moonlit evening. Frost on his breath, chin on his knees, sitting in the bed of his truck like he was just camping. He heard it howling, low and lonesome. He hummed back, soft, softly.

The wolf came out from the underbrush, making its way in near silence.

It was small for a wolf, but not small, brown and grey coat and fangs in the moonlight.. Those dark eyes, human eyes in its face. Michael nodded, coming to a decision. 

"Hey Alex," he said, and patted the space next to him. It-- he-- Alex-- took a leap, graceful and fast, landing lightly on the truck bed. Michael considered it and he was considered in turn. After a moment, feeling kind of an idiot, he held out a hand. He wasn't sure wolves rolled their eyes, but Alex Manes did.

Then he pressed his head against Michael's palm anyway. It was warm, the fur rougher than it looked, rougher than a dog's, but thick.

"This is really fucked up," Michael said out loud. The wolf seemed to laugh, tongue out, not quite a shrug. "I feel like we're mixing genres here."

Another full bodied wolf shrug. Then it-- he--lay his head down on Michael's lap. Warm, warmer than the breathing, living body of old man Sander's geriatric mutt he shared a couch with when he was working at the junkyard. Alive.

Michael shuddered and then relaxed. He closed his eyes, not meaning to slip down and fall asleep, but he was tired, killed, and if Alex Manes were gonna rip his throat out, he'd have tried it by now.

He woke up to pale winter sun and Alex's human face looking down on him. Alex was mostly naked and frowning, a little line between his eyes, a tilt to his head. His black hair was a mess, spiked out in every direction, light brown skin peeking out from under Michael's blankets, the one's he'd wrapped around himself. He might not have his clothes, but he still had all his piercings. The wolf hadn’t, and part of Michael really wanted to ask but Alex was the one who spoke up first. 

"So," Alex said, a little rough, but just like it was morning, like nothing was wrong. "What are you exactly? Because I've looked through all the family lore and there's nothing in it that smells like you."

Michael raised both eyebrows and tried not to go defensive. He was dressed, it was his truck, Alex was human shaped right now, no fangs or claws. "What do I smell like?"

Alex made a face and shook his head. "Not human. Like rain. Like starlight. What are you? A… a nature spirit? A wizard or something? What?"

Michael couldn't help the laugh then, this was too ridiculous. "Come on Alex, we're in Roswell. You're the one that's coming from the wrong genre."

The look on Alex's face. The sudden stillness. The even faster fugitive smile. Not scared at all. Wondering. "Wait," he said, with a tilt to his chin. "Seriously? Like… an alien?"

Michael responded with a shrug. "It would be a pretty fucked up joke." He paused. There was a naked guy in his truck, so who knew about any of it. “So… why are you here? In my truck?”

Alex shrugged, ducking his face a little, flushing. He wasn’t angry at all, no matter what the rumours said, not like this. He muttered, “I noticed you were living out here in your truck. That’s not exactly safe.”

Michael frowned at him, because that made less sense than the werewolf thing, “you the committee for public safety, Manes? Thanks for eating some dude for my honor, I guess?”

Alex rolled his eyes then, “you’re welcome, Guerin.”

Michael returned the eyeroll, with change. “I’m not in any danger I can see at the moment. But you’re here. And naked.” His fingers tapped against the metal of the truck while he considered Alex.

Alex took a deep, slow breath. “It was cold last night. I just thought-- look-- I could go,” he offered. 

Michael frowned and shook his head, fingers tapping faster now. “I didn’t say go, I just wanted to know what you were looking for?”

That made Alex stare at him. Frown. “Really?” he managed. Then suddenly, almost out of nowhere, he started to laugh. It was a really nice sound, nothing sharp or mean in it, just light, and Michael couldn’t help his own stupid grin. Ok, it was kind of obvious. And then he laughed, which cracked Alex up again, until they were both snickering like idiots. It was… it was nice...

“You smell like you’re looking for that too,” Alex said, when they managed to settle down. The sun shone in his hair and it was… it was nice… how it did that.

“That’s cheating,” Michael told him, still grinning. Then, on impulse, he shifted up, to kiss Alex carefully on his mouth. Warm and slow enough to sink into. It felt good, being held up, blood and bone, by whatever crazy magic this dustball of a planet had to offer. Alex Manes, with his hot strong hands.  
Michael was looking forward to seeing a lot more of the wolf.

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at me on Tumblr @ninswhimsy


End file.
